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Old 05-05-2019, 09:02 PM   #1
Big John Sny
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Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Dallas Texas
Posts: 61
Steering Wheel is a half turn off after disc brake conversion

So I have a 1968 C10. I swapped in the power steering box from an 86 C10 a couple years ago. I just recently swapped in an entire front crossmember, with all of the steering components all from a mid 80's suburban.
The pitman arm was bad so I bought a new one from a mid 80's C10 with power steering.

I looked to set the toe in close so I could run down an get it aligned. Interestingly, the toe in is dead on, but the steering wheel is one half turn off. To go straight I have to have the steering wheel turned to the right a half turn, so, I only have a 1 and 1/4 turns to the right before i hit off the stop (pretty terrible turning radius) and can turn 2 1/4 turns to the left.
At first I did not think this was a big deal. I would just adjust the tie rods over to bring it back in, but when I went to the alignment shop, they pointed out that the tie rod ends were pretty even. He kept trying to tell me my steering box was bad and that I needed to replace it for him to do an alignment, but that box has worked great with the original 68 front end for the last couple years.

The frame is the exact same width, so I cant see why this would be the case. I did have the thought the Pitman arm could be wrong (splines clocked incorrectly) so I went to the parts house and looked to get another one. The one the parts guy pulled out was splined exactly the same. Of course it was the same brand and could possibly have the same defect.

Was just wondering if anyone else had run into this. Is there something that could possibly be missing?
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